Police arrest youth in alleged LSS stabbing incident

Ladysmith RCMP have made an arrest in relation to an alleged stabbing at Ladysmith Secondary School that took place on Dec. 19.

On Tuesday, Jan. 6, working with Ladysmith Secondary School staff, Ladysmith RCMP investigators arrested one youth offender for assault with a weapon. The weapon allegedly used in the stabbing was subsequently seized and placed into evidence, according to a press release from the RCMP.

“The alleged offender was well known to the victim at the time of the offence,” Staff Sgt. Dave Herman said in the release. “The motives behind this incident are highly unusual and do not place any other member of the student body or staff at risk. Ladysmith RCMP reassure the community that the student body and staff at Ladysmith [Secondary] School are safe.”

The youth offender arrested was interviewed by RCMP investigators at the Ladysmith RCMP Detachment before being released to parents and will appear in Youth Court in Duncan on Feb. 26.

Ladysmith RCMP had responded to a complaint of a stabbing at Ladysmith Secondary School at 11:55 a.m. on Dec. 19, shortly before the high school closed for the Christmas holidays.

“At that time, little details were known as information provided to RCMP investigators by the victim of the alleged stabbing was highly questionable and confounded investigators for some time,” stated Herman. “There were no known witnesses to this act.”

In a press release following the incident, the police reported that the student who reported the alleged stabbing was in the crowded hallway and headed to the bathroom during a break between classes when he felt “a sharp pinch in his back.”

The student’s back started to hurt, and when he asked a teacher to look at it, a wound was found.

The student was sent to the Ladysmith Community Health Centre and required one suture to close up the wound, which reportedly measured five millimeters wide by four millimeters deep.